Dunmore House from the air
Dunmore House, former home of the NSW Premier Sir George Fuller, just north of the Minnamurra river and Kiama.
Who has heard the story of the Headless Ghost of Dunmore House?
Dunmore House below.
Spooky road outside Dunmore House in the early 1900s
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These photos are from 'Illawarra Images' http://illawarraimages.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/illaweb/scripts/default.asp?Lib=/IllaIms
and Shellharbour Images
http://www2.photosau.com/Shellharbour/scripts/home.asp
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Open window at Dunmore House, taken by Anne Ali.
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Dunmore House fireplace
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Avenue of trees at Dunmore House. It is now privately owned as Dunmore Equestrian Centre
and the history of the Fullers can be found here.
Sir George Fuller
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http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/Members.nsf/1bc5ebe27c19c693ca2574aa00139a9b/d62cb8788a80cc2aca256cb700167749!OpenDocument
http://www.aph.gov.au/exhibitions/pogg/members/fuller.htm
http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170443b.htm
Here is an article about Colonel Tom Fuller, the Ilawarra’s most famous soldier.
http://www.lighthorse.org.au/Pershist/fuller.htm
http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080612b.htm
and the recently deceased (2009) Sir John Fuller, son of their other brother Bryan Fuller.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fuller_(Australian_politician)
Here is a Dion’s bus timetable to Kiama
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and a Dion's bus in Kiama in about the right era ( from http://www.dions.com.au/html/gallery-one.cfm
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1938 Bedford in service in Kiama.
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Chevrolet with charcoal burning gas producer.
Sadly no pics of the headless ghost itself, like this one from Stoke Hall, in the UK!
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Here is the full story from Barney Dion published in the Dion family history
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Here is the front cover of the Dion family history
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It started in the 1950s when the Dion buses stopped running to Kiama, not because of the lack of passengers but because whenever the bus drivers were on their own, a headless ghost would be seen at the wall at Dunmore House by the road. This turned out to be one of the many larrikin pranks Kiama is famous for, where two brothers co-operated, one spotting for the bus driver and then phoning ahead so his brother could rush down, in costume, and stand by the fence as he drove by.
A spooky addition to this, is that, reported in the Kiama Independent of around 1887 was the death of an overseer at Dunmore House, with the only detail given that he was ‘mutilated’.
I just want to no is the ownwer dead and did he kill lots of people and burrie them in his home whilst building it and is he still in jail or dead ??
Dear Mr Whalan
I have checked the book ‘The Dions: Bus pioneers of Wollongong’ LR 388.322/BIR but there is no reference to a ghost at minnamurra & Dions bus service.
I have also checked the catalogue ‘Illawarra Index’ with no references to a ghost at minnamurra & Dions bus service.
I did check our local newspaper clippings file and found a couple of references to a ghost at Minnamurra but not in relation to the Dions bus service.
1. The Bloody Mile, Shellharbour – source The Illawarra Ghost Trail: a tour of the 13 spookiest spots (2001?)
“The road………….from Shellharbour railway station to Minnamurra River Bridge was known in the 1850’s as the ‘Bloody Mile’ – 13 murders took place…………….one victim’s murderers stuck his head on a pole by the roadside near Dunmore House. It was discovered by a bus driver on his rounds who was so traumatised that he never drove again” etc.
2. Ghosts of the Illawarra – source The Illawarra Mercury Weekender, Sat., April 3, 1999.
“Jamberoo – The older surviving homestead, Minnamurra House, dates to 1840 and is home to a headless ghost…………It is unclear whether the ghost is that of a man employed at the homestead who fell head first into a vat of boiling pitch or that of a man who drowned in the Minnamurra river about 70 years ago.”
3. ‘The Ghost guide to Australia, Richard Davis – LR133.10994/DAV.
“Minnamurra house……………….a scientist and companion saw (at different times) the headless ghost of a man….in that room.”
Same suspicions as to whose ghost it is as in no. 2 above.
We can post you a copy of these snippets if you wish. Please provide us with a postal address.
So we have not been able to find any relation to a headless ghost at Minnamurra & Dions bus service.
Also, could you e-mail us the link to the blog at Kiama local history which you referred to in your telephone call.
Please contact us if you would like further assistance.
regards
Agnes
AGNES TOTH
Senior Library Officer – Community Information Service
Wollongong City Library
Locked Bag 8821
Wollongong NSW 2500
Ph: 4227 7416 Fax: 4227 7553
E-mail: atoth@wollongong.nsw.gov.au
I have contacted the Dion family to verify this, after Les Dion spoke on ABC Local radio, on Friday 14th September, 2007 on the Nick Rheinberger Show.
I wonder if the bus driver referred to was one of the Dion brothers.
Les Dion has rung me and confirmed that one of the Dion Brothers saw a ghost near the Minnamurra bridge. He is sending me a copy of the Dion familiy book. Apparently he chased the ghost with his bus and the ghost threw a rope up into the trees and vanished! A story of a ghost who used to leave his head on a fence post was the one Les mentioned.
Les has sent me a copy of the book and indeed they stopped doing the picture runs because of the Ghost at Fuller’s Gate.
[…] See also Headless Ghost of Dunmore House. […]
I have been honoured to live in Dunmore House for the period June’66 to Dec’66 and to frequent the property for the following 10 years.
My father bought Dunmore House in 1966 in run down condition for 17,000 pounds.
The property was refurbished before we moved in. My wedding reception was held in the Ballroom in Dec’66
I certainly remember the stories about the headless ghost and Dions Bus service after midnight. These stories were prevelant during 1957 to 60, my years at Berkeley High School.
However there were expirences of ghostly sensations during the decade of my families occupation of Dunmore House.
One in significance was during a visiting team of table tennis players. In those years we played competitive table tennis, Dunmore House was our home venue.
About 20 people witnessed this particular occasion. ( about midnight) Not one person spoke during the experience.
The room above the Ballroom seemed to be of particular interest for the ghost. The family dogs would not go through the door to that room, but rather retreat in hast.
In a room 12m x 12m we noticed every time ( twice weekly) on entering that room one ceiling tile in particular would always out of position, even though we replaced it on a regular basis.
The room was always closed, there was no draught. This was very puzzling.
My parents had further experiences which I can only relay third hand.
Is yours father dead does anybody live there or is he in jail
I went to school with kids who lived there in the mid 1990s. There was a massive hole upstairs. When u looked down there was no telling where it went, was really strange. They always told creepy stories about things that they heard in that house…creepy!
[…] Headless Ghost of Dunmore House August 20077 comments […]
i love to hear the history of the headless horseman as i spent my teenage years living at dunmoe house with my family running the business we carried on the tradition with our holiday camps by producing a “headless horseman” at the end of each camp for many years and i am sure the story will live on for along time more as it was the highlight of childrens camp!!
I spent many wonderful week ends at Dunmore House
in the late 70’s with a dear friend of mine. At the time, the
house belonged to the local vet.
Sadly I never heard of, or saw the ghost and I would have
loved the experience.
I would love to hear a bit more of your visits, the reports seem to center on a ‘presence’ in a upstairs room(or the ‘ballroom’ with lots of mirrors?) or the headless ghost by the gate( mainly, but not only based on the prank since a mutilation murder DID occur).
Certainly a good Ghost Tour of Kiama could make to the fate, but the current owners are very private.
i spend nearly every weekend at dunmore house horse riding and i did go in the house (its beautiful i love old houses) a few times and i saw nothing that was in the late 80s early 90s
I think the ghost is a bit fanciful, and anyway more likely down by the gate.
I would love to here about this headless ghost up at Dunmore House. It seems so interesting. Does anyone know of some more sites or newspaper articles of the murders?
If you have anything please email me on courtneyshanahan2533@gmail.com
[…] there behind the bushes is Dunmore House, about which there is a delightful ghost story recounted on the Kiama History blog, much as my father told it to me 60+ years ago! Shellharbour […]
can you visit the dunmore house during the night?
[…] there behind the bushes is Dunmore House, about which there is a delightful ghost story recounted on the Kiama History blog, much as my father told it to me 60+ years ago! Shellharbour […]
Can you vist the house . Does anyone live there
People do live there but currently they don’t allow public visitors or tour groups
i lived in this house from 1955 to 1961 the ghost was not headless at all,there was a man murdered at the house out the back near the stables ,his head was hung on the old chocko vines opposite and the ghost could be seen occassionally but i doubt whether the ghost was of the man murdered but of one of the convicts that built the home originally as far as mr hughes saying that the property was derelict in the 60s when his father bought it are completely wrong up until the hughes purchase the home had belonged to lysaghts and was kept immaculate including the stone walls that collapsed during the hughes tenure,has anyone that lived here ever been under the house where the convicts were chained at night?there was a trapdoor in the flooring of the old stables made of some timber like railway sleepers that led under the old servants quarters at the rear of the main house where they were kept.would be nice to return one day just to look around
Don’t worry about the house, you need to read this
BLOODY MILE
In 1990 body parts were found in southern highlands and Kiama-Dunmore area. A kid with his father dumping rubbish at the Dunmore dump that is across the road from Dunmore house saw a severed head in the garbage. Before it could be retrieved the bulldozer had tipped tons of rubbish over it. Despite frantic efforts by police to recover the head nothing was found.
In late 1980’s there was a body of murdered prostitute found rolled up in a carpet dumped in the swamp that was never fully solved
1978. On returning home from holiday on the South Coast with his wife and two kids in the car heading north just past the Minamurra bridge. His wife was driving chatting away and accidentally run up the back of a truck that had some log protruding over the back of the truck. His wife was decapitated as the log came through the windscreen leaving the son in the back seat with his dead mothers head in his lap. Tragic as that was a few years later his daughter died of breast cancer and his son perhaps haunted by that terrible accident, Killed himself by blowing himself up with explosiveness in a flat in Warrawong with his wife and son.
In 1949 27 year old Neville William Fielding run up the back of truck broken down on the road near Minamurra bridge near the gates of Dunmore house. His father was a passenger and revived severe scalp injury. Neville the driver was decapitated. neither of them had seen the broken down truck
In 1932 Frank Smith Aged 20 unemployed in the great depression of the 1930,s and was camping near the southern end of the Bridge. He claimed he heard during the night screaming and baby crying and house was on fire in which he tried to rescue the child. Frank Smith was found I the morning in a tent with his hand was so badly burned that his fingers on one of his hands was burnt off. The trouble was there was no house fire and where he got burned was a mystery. Frank could not tell much more of the event as the shock had cut in and died from his injuries later that day.
In 1931 Joseph Penny Died when his motor cycle impacted head on with a motor vehicle. The force of impacted crushed Penny’s throat almost severing the head. Dying with in meters of the gates of Dunmore house
In 1926 the body of James Thomas Wales at Minamurra his head shattered and arm severed. Apparently run over by a train from Kiama at night. The exact cause of events leading to the fatality is unknown. Just another victim of long list of coincidental fatalities in this area that end up in various forms of decapitation.
In 1924 William Murray a shell shocked veteran of WW1 snapped after a heavy night of drinking in Shellharbour at a dance, while walking home through Dunmore murdered George Simpson on claim that Simpson had been rude to his wife. Murray had slit the throat of Simpson and tossed the body into some lantana. The throat was severed so much it had almost decapitated Simpson, except for a tiny flap if skin on neck holding the head to the body
Eugene Shaw in 1922 fell of train unnoticed and some somehow fell under the wheels and was cut in half. The headless body torso was caught in the cow catcher by second train heading south in front of the train slowing slicing off piece by piece.
During WW1 in 1916, Mrs Lambert riding home in a horse and buggy struck a rock or bump in road in front of Gate of Dunmore House and was thrown unhurt. Unfortunately the baby she was holding was tossed from her arms and struck a rock on the side of the track killing the baby instantly.
In 1912 or there about 4 men was killed and six injured in quarry at Minamurra when a rock wall collapsed. One of the survivors who was still so distressed by the incident that…2 weeks later Granger Eyles jumped into the path of an oncoming train a Minamurra railway station and was cut to pieces. His body littered the track from Minamurra to Dunmore
In 1909 a headless body decomposed was found in swamp between the railway line and road. The head was found meters away. There was a abandoned swag found at Minamurra railway station. But it was a mystery how the body got so far away from the train line?
In 1898 a Mrs McLaughlin had either fallen to her death or committed suicide. Her body was found near the creek leading into the river.
1895 was a rather fatal year as 6 people drowned in river near the bridge when their little boat was swamped. 3 of the bodies never recovered.
In 1894 a man by the name John Mc Encros of Dunmore had been returning at night across the bridge when some thing spooked the horse throwing him backwards head first onto the bridge fracturing his skull where he died
The most disturbing was the horrible murder committed by a women by the name of Ellen Flynn in January 1861. She was living with her sister Ann White in a house on the southern end of Minamurra bridge. In heat of summer Ann was sick and Had only given birth to newborn not long. Her sister for some reason snapped one morning and took the baby and cut up the child into pieces was walking around holding a little pair of severed legs saying to her sister the mother of the baby “ Look I am a Butcher now” Ellen Flynn was taken away to Parramatta Asylum where she spent the rest of her days. The original house where these events happened all sad and abandoned could still be seen until it was torn down in the early 1870’s
In 1st of April or there about William Gard drowned at crossing point of the Minamurra river. His death was reported in Sydney Morning herald of 1853.
In May 1836 James Tobin was arrested for the murder of his Convict overseer Robert Fox with an axe near the Dunmore house. Tobin was charged and found guilty of smashing in the head of Robert Fox and sentenced to death. Tobins body was then cut up by medical students in dissection and parts of his body can still be found today preserved in glass jars in the medical collage in Sydney. Some claim as long as his body is not allowed rest in a proper grave the place of where he lived and worked will always be stained with tragedy.